23 DEC 2025 · Phoenix, Arizona is where you'll find hot air balloon tours, the Desert Botanical Garden, a variety of fascinating museums, and a vibrant food scene.
Guest: Sarah Doyle, DIrector of Communication, Visit Phoenix
Must-Do's:
- https://dbg.org/: Offers the world's finest collection of arid plants from deserts of the world in a unique outdoor setting. The Garden has more than 50,000 desert plants on display throughout five thematic trails that illustrate topics such as conservation, desert living, plants and people of the Sonoran Desert, and desert wildflowers. The garden often features unique art installations such as the current Desert Pulse exhibit.
- https://heard.org: One of the most prominent tributes to Indigenous culture and history in Arizona, the Heard Museum is known around the world for having a vast and high-quality collection of southwest Indigenous people's art, history, artifacts and more.
- https://mim.org): The largest of its kind, the Musical Instrument Museum is a collection of 15,000 instruments from more than 200 countries, including several modern-day artifacts on display including real props, instruments, and other historical items from musical icons such as Elvis, Johnny Cash and Roberta Flack.
- Hot Air Balloons: Hot air balloon tours are a surely unique way to tour the desert landscape of Arizona with services such as https://hotairexpeditions.com/ and https://www.rainbowryders.com/ offering sky-high, birds eye views of Greater Phoenix.
- https://phxart.org: Situated in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Phoenix Art Museum is the largest art museum in the southwest. Annually, over 300,000 visitors explore its exhibitions, alongside a vast collection exceeding 20,000 pieces that include American, Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, as well as fashion design. o Accessibility to the art has always been at the forefront of the museum's mission with initiatives like Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesdays. Visitors have the option to make a small donation if they wish, allowing them to explore the entire museum. This event occurs every Wednesday evening and helps ensure that access to the arts is available to all, regardless of financial barriers.
- https://www.azscience.org: Located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona Science Center features more than 300 hands-on exhibits, a revitalized state-of-the-art Cosm planetarium, a five-story giant-screen theater, live demonstrations, traveling exhibitions and exciting science programs for people of all ages.
- https://www.azboardwalk.com is home to eight attractions including the https://www.odyseaaquarium.com and https://butterflywonderland.com/ The OdySea Voyager, “the world’s only rotating aquarium experience,” features shark waters, sea turtle reef and open ocean exhibits. The Butterfly Wonderland is one of the largest butterfly conservatories in North America, providing a rainforest experience unique to Arizona’s climate. Some of the new and coming soon exhibits at Arizona Boardwalk are https://theufoexperience.com/ and https://moiscottsdale.com/.
- https://www.visitphoenix.com/sonoran-desert/parks/papago-park/: Hiking on the iconic Phoenix mountains is also an ideal outdoor activity for all, with trails fit for anyone's experience level including the iconic Hole-in-the-Rock hike at Papago Park.
- https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/: Scottsdale’s only National Historic Landmark, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, immerses you in the world of the Desert Laboratory, where Frank Lloyd Wright and his apprentices lived and advanced architecture.
- https://www.visitphoenix.com/greater-phoenix/phoenix/downtown-phoenix/roosevelt-row/ is downtown Phoenix’s walkable arts district, home to art galleries, restaurants, bars and boutique shops in a landscape dotted by colorful street art. Popular events in the neighborhood include the monthly First Fridays Art Walk and annual festivities such as M3F Music Festival, Phoestivus, the Pie Social and more.
What's New:
- https://www.azscience.org/experience/planetarium/ https://www.azscience.org/ recently opened its reimagined Dorrance DOME in partnership with leading immersive tech company Cosm in October 2025. The planetarium is the most technologically advanced in all North America, featuring an 18-meter diameter, CX System LED dome display with 8K+ resolution and 100x the brightness of most planetarium projection domes using Cosm’s CX System.
- https://revelsurf.com/ at https://cannonbeachaz.com/ opened in December 2024 as a 37-acre entertainment center and includes 500,000 square feet of restaurants, retail shops, a 17-foot cliff-diving lagoon, a KTR Action Sports playground, a skate park, volleyball, and smashball courts, and a beach themed splash pad. The centerpiece of the park is the 4.5-acre water park, Revel Surf, which has a lagoon that produces waves in various shapes and sizes. The 650,000-gallon Unity Surf Pool generates stationary surfing waves.
- https://cactusleague.com/index.php: Greater Phoenix is home to ten stadiums and 15 MLB teams, including Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, and Colorado Rockies, providing fans an up-close experience with their favorite players. The teams play almost 200 games across Greater Phoenix during the season, with no two ballparks more than a 45-minute drive from each other. The 2026 Cactus League season runs from February 20 to March 24.
- https://dbg.org/visit/dining/ recently reopened at https://dbg.org with acclaimed chef Mark Tarbell, James Beard Award nominee, Iron Chef America winner, and Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame inductee, at the helm. The locally sourced menu celebrates the many ingredients that grow in Arizona, creating a natural blend between the garden and dining experience. The reimagined restaurant opened in October 2025, with future plans to include an elevated patio dining service that will envelope guests in the beauty and abundance of the Sonoran Desert.
- https://pinyonrestaurant.com is a new Mediterranean-inspired restaurant that opened in October 2025. Named after the resilient pinyon trees found in the Southwest, this new concept features cuisine inspired by the cultures of over 20 Mediterranean countries including Turkey, Italy, France, Malta, Greece, Spain, Morocco. Dishes will include house-made pita, crudos, pasta, seasonal salads, spreads, and dips. Pinyon is the third concept from Hi Noon Hospitality, operators of the local favorite Buck & Rider and Ingo’s Tasty Food.
- https://www.aldenphx.com at https://phxart.org/ is the new onsite dining option available at the Phoenix Art Museum that opened in October 2025. Named after the architect of the museum, Alden B. Dow, the restaurant reflects the characteristics of the facility, including elegant, eye-catching design, and a diverse menu. The restaurant also offers several grab-and-go options that are ideal for dining in the museum’s serene Dorrance Sculpture Garden.
- https://www.cleaverman.com/: Pretty Decent Concepts opened three new concepts in 2025. Drop Dead Gorgeous opened in May 2025 in Tempe capturing the raw energy of the 1970s while infusing the glamor of vintage cocktails and the allure of golden hour. Filthy Animal, an avant-garde homage to the beauty and brutality of the jungle centered around a wood-fire cooking pit, opened in March 2025. Cleaverman Steak, an upscale steakhouse with complimentary drinks and a discreet martini bar named Filthy, opened in November 2025 in downtown Phoenix.
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